Reply: Le Havre:: General:: Re: Two player long game - Advantage: first player

by davypi

bogdan_vre wrote:

It seems that whoever is first has a big advantage after the first turn. Depending on the available build orders the 1st player can use the Construction Firm to build 2 buildings and then purchase an additional one, leaving the 2nd player with a lot less to do on their turn.
Am I missing something?

First, you seem to be hammering on the same point that everyone else is and focusing on what the first player can do on the first round of the game without considering what happens in future rounds of the game. If you want focus your argument on round one, then yes, the start player does have a slight advantage. But to get to the overall idea that the start player has an advantage over the whole game, you have to prove that this advantage carries over from round to round. Nobody has done this. Sure, the start player gets first choice of buildings, but I've also been in games where the better buildings were buried two or three levels deep. By taking a less used building, the start player may be opening up a better move for the second player. You also get into interesting this like the fact that the player who builds a building is seldom the first player who can use it. For example, if the start player wants to buy the marketplace, one possible response is to buy the cost four building firm and then use the marketplace to take three goods. You can then just leave your worker there until you are done taking offers and you've blocked your opponent out of using the spot.

Second, there aren't that many buildings you can buy with your five starting francs. The clay mound and four franc building firm, sure, but the Black Market isn't used in a two player game. Unless I'm forgetting something, the idea that you can double build and buy on the second action of the game seems unlikely. Certainly the start player is more likely to have the necessary resources to double build before the second player, but if the second player sees they are going to do this, they can single build with fewer resources and possibly beat the first player to a key building.